Dunlavy SC-IVa how best driven


I have been driving my B & W 801s with Northcreeks crossovers with Audio Reasearch Classic 150s upgraded with infinicaps. My preamp is an Audio Reseach Ref 2. Does the IVs require more power to sing? Thus far i've been quite pleased with the performance of my system, but after hearing the IVas driven by an x350 combined with a tube front end, I knew I had to upgrade the speakers.
128x128jwin
I have the Dunlavy SC-V(s) and am quite familiar with
the entire Dunlavy line. One thing for sure is that Dunlavy
speakers love high current designs. In fact, I believe the
deep clean bass potential with these speakers is unsurpassed. I have had terrific success using two ARC D200
amps vertically bi-amping the speakers. Great Northern
Sound Co. can do wonders throughout the system in terms of
cost effective modifications that will maximize system potential.
I had a friend drive a pair of IV's with a pair of B&K M200's. He then added a second pair of B&K M200's (all amps sent back to the factory for calibration). The differnece was startling. I know these speakers are 91 db efficent. I know these speakers don't vary much in impedance. I know the manufacturer claims 150 watts max. I know the manufacturer doesn't think bi-wiring or bi-amping helps these speakers. I also know what we heard. The soundstage became enormous particularly in height and depth. There was an effortless quality to micro and macro dynamics that was both staggering and elegant. Vocalist became more coherent and dare I say human. Why such a difference? I don't know. Maybe we wanted to hear the differnce? Maybe the amps were running in class A longer? I don't know. I do know that it happend consistently, time and time again, even in different rooms.
I have my Dunlavys 12ft. apart 3ft. from the side wall and 4ft. from the front. The soundstage is BIG.The best tweak is roomlenes.I also think the SC4a,s sound best truely bi wired.
Unsound, Who told you 150 watts max. Most speakers sound better the more power you feed them, there are exceptions of course. But Dunlavys certainly fall into this catagory.
Steve
Evo845 I believe the 150 watts max that I applied to the Dunlavy IV's came from Dunlavy's old web site. It was in context of recommended power not short term power capability. Yes the soundstage of the Dunlavys when set up right is huge. But my friend and I were not expecting this already huge soudstage to expand even more and with more dimensionality when doubling the amps/power from over 400 available watts to over 800 available watts per channel. The Dunlavy's don't necessiarlly seem to need a lot of power. But, obviously we agree, that the Dunlavys seem to enjoy the extra power. I only wish that we could have tried doing the same with amplifiers having a better "pedigree". BTW, the rest of the system included a CAL CD player, Sonic Frontiers Line 3, identical Wire World eclipse (balanced) interconnects and identical Wire World Polaris speaker cables.
The 150i Aloia's were my favorite choice. I settled on those after using Cary200's and Wolcott. The hardest thing is to set them up properly with that large of a speaker. If you don't have room for them to breathe you won' t be impressed.